Knife feel good

I'm working on something kind of long-form, so while I do that, I want to direct your attention to this blog that I became obsessed with this weekend. Burning the Ground is an MP3 blog that exists in a niche that might as well call a corner of my heart home base: full maxi-singles of the '80s and '90s. Almost all of the links of his seven-month deep archive are still up, and there are gigs worth of gold. The greatest thing I found was the maxi-single of Jane Child's "Don't Wanna Fall in Love." A few months ago, I became re-obsessed with this song for its sheer ballsy shrillness and pseudo-punk angst fit for Merry-Go-Round. I searched high and low for the (slightly less treble-infused) Teddy Riley remixes of it for a few weeks in vain. And now I have them and my life is one step closer to complete. That's not the track that led me to find this blog in the first place, though -- I'll leave that up to your imagination because it's kinda-sorta embarrassing, and if you know how shameless I am about the garbage that I gleefully consume, you know that that's saying something.

In other music news, I'm thrilled that Christina Aguilera is (kinda) promoting the crowning achievement of her career so far, "Save Me From Myself." Via ONTD, I discovered that she posted this as a "thank you" to her fans slash baby announcement. I'd bitch about the whole, "To thank you, here's me!" mentality, but I'm not even bothered by it because this song is a cynicism annihilator. Just gorgeous.

I know that this isn't an "official" single, but I really hope that it picks up and becomes huge so that she'll be prompted to make more relatively understated music like this. I've found that embracing nuance is part of maturity, and now that Christina's a mommy, growing up musically would be a great look.

Nice video! Glad to hear someone other than me giving the song its due props. In Denver, we were blessed with its presence on the radio (Martini FM) multiple times at this time last year. So intimate and gorgeous. It was a wonderful contrast to her...well, dirty image on "Dirty"...one of the many videos that made me dread video bars, if only because it was overplayed and didn't differentiate her from the other sexpot Mouseketeers. (Yes, I am pretty far removed from that side of pop culture.)

cool, I still remember your album review about b2b and how you perfectly described that song.
"It's an almost childishly simple testament to the necessity of love, as lucid as it is hokey. And, most triumphantly: it's the kind of egocentrism that just about anybody could get behind."

thanks, that's two addictions from fourfour! ok, you may hate this, may not, let me know what you think either way...while I was in high school Waco had two of the best dance clubs in Texas, Outer Limits and 25th St. Theater, 25th was an old movie house converted into a dance club. There is a myspace page devoted to saving the building. Anyway, I was a regular and one of my favorite songs/videos was the "street mix" of "I Want Your (Hands on Me) feat. MC Lyte by Sinead O'Connor. what exactly does "street mix" refer to?

What a coincidence. I have been listening to Back to Basics non stop since I picked it up over the holidays at a used record store in LA. It really is a decent CD had she just eliminated the 2nd disc entirely. Since she's given birth, I was surprised that she didn't choose the track, "Without You," even though it is clearly written for Jordan. Seemed appropriate as well as "Save Me."

Rich-pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease-recap The Bad Girls Club. I absolutely NEED to hear your reactions to what these bitches do on a regular basis. please hear the desperation in my...erm...words?

I usually am a big lurker but because of your post of Christina's new video...I must comment. That song literally brings me to tears every time I hear it. It will definitely be my first dance song at my wedding...and I'm usually not a cheesy person! Thanks, your blog is awesome!

I seriously have the Jane Child, "I don't wanna fall in love" CASSINGLE; though I haven't had a cassette player of any kind in 15 years. I used to blast it in my '81 oldsmobile back in 1991, when I was a senior in high school and thought, "Yeah, man, I don't wanna fall in love!"
JulesHouse of Jules

i actually love that song. since i don't own b2b, i don't think i've heard it (i went to her concert... yes with the pussycat dolls, embarassing) and she might have sang it but it prob didn't have the same honesty, with like 4,000 teenagers screaming.

she looks beautiful in the far shots but her over-posturing in the close ups on her face, and her awful mouthing of the words takes away from the song a little.

That is a beautiful song. I have been waiting to see when she would figure out that subtlety will server her voice so much better than all the bombast you usually associate with her...hopefully this is the first of many songs like this. After all the Britney coverage in the news lately, it is amazing to see how differently they both turned out.